New York-based Jana, which is known for taking stakes in companies and then urging management to make changes to boost the stock price, bought 12 million shares of San Jose, California-based EBay, bringing the value of its position in the company to $739.8 million as of Sept. 30, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

EBay was Jana's second-largest U.S. equity holding as of the third quarter behind drugstore-chain Walgreen Co. Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn also has built up a stake in EBay and has been pressing for a sale of its payments unit PayPal.

Jana also purchased about 842,000 shares of McDonald's in the quarter valued at $79.9 million as of Sept. 30. Shares of the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company climbed 1.5 percent to $96.95 at 10:14 a.m. in New York.

Charles Penner, a partner at Jana, declined to comment on the filing.

Jana increased the value of its holdings in consumer discretionary companies by 7.6 percent during the third quarter and reduced the value of its holdings in materials by 5 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Jana fell 2.1 percent in October, according to a separate investor report obtained by Bloomberg News. Jana listed Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. in the report as a new bullish bet in its top five holdings. Valeant, with support from activist hedge-fund manager Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management LP, is seeking to acquire Botox-maker Allergan Inc.

Money managers who oversee more than $100 million in U.S. equities must file a Form 13F within 45 days of the end of each quarter to list their holdings in stocks that trade on U.S. exchanges, as well as options and convertible debt. Hedge funds are lightly regulated pools of capital whose managers can invest in any asset and share in annual profits.